Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard: Tidal "Is Going to Fail Miserably"

“I think they totally blew it by bringing out a bunch of millionaires and billionaires and propping them up onstage and then having them all complain about not being paid”

Last month, Jay Zre-launched Tidal, the high-quality audio streaming service he recently purchased. Tidal is co-owned by a bunch of high-profile musicians, including Beyoncé, Jack White, Daft Punk, Kanye West, Rihanna, Arcade Fire's Win Butler and Regine Chassagne, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, and more. Now, Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard has criticized Tidal for its emphasis on musicians who are already successful, in a new interview with The Daily Beast.

Gibbard said that if he were Jay Z, he would have featured underpaid independent musicians in order to highlight how Tidal will better pay its artists, versus competitive services like Spotify and Rdio. "I think they totally blew it by bringing out a bunch of millionaires and billionaires and propping them up onstage and then having them all complain about not being paid," he said.

"There was a wonderful opportunity squandered to highlight what this service would mean for artists who are struggling and to make a plea to people’s hearts and pocketbooks to pay a little more for this service that was going to pay these artists a more reasonable streaming rate," he continued. "And they didn’t do it. That’s why this thing is going to fail miserably."